Hero: 108 season 3
My notes for writing a third season (and later fourth) of Hero: 108. If your are reading this, congratulations, you found a lot of spoilers. Overview of Season 3 The villains of this season are the Animal Lords, a mysterious group briefly mentioned by name in the episode "Animals Inside part I". It will be revealed in this season that the animal lords collectively refers to a dynasty of councils of animals with powerful magical abilities. (The four animal kings seen with Tien Khuan in the episode "The Sword of Dark Fire" will be revealed to be one of the last generations of the Animal Lords.) At the height of their power, they ruled all of Hidden Kingdom, and while not tyrannical, their power was unquestioned and absolute. The opening of this season will reveal that several of them have survived to this day. This is because they also did battle with Twin Masters, hundreds of years ago. Their powers were too evenly matched, and Twin Masters could not destroy them. However, he tricked them and was able to seal them in tombs of Chaotic Energy, where they lay in deep slumber until the modern day. (This battle weakened Twin Masters, leading to events that would render them largely inactive until the time of season 2.) With the defeat of Twin Masters, the chaotic Energy sealing the tombs begins to fade shortly after his death, and the Animal Lords who survived the battle with him will emerge. The proposed model of the Animal Lords is that at the time they did battle with Twin Masters, there were twelve of them, corresponding to the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. However, several of them are implied to have not survived the battle with Twin Masters. The five who remain are the tiger, snake, sheep, rooster, and pig. It is proposed that they will have names based on the Chinese words for these animals, making their names sound ancient compared to the name of the modern day. For this reason, the working names are Hu (tiger), She (snake), Yang (sheep), Ji (rooster), and Zhu (pig). The most powerful of these in the current outline is Yang (who having black wool will be called Black Yang, a play on the fact that in the Taoist concept Yang is the white one. However, Yang can also mean sheep of goat.) While all of the Animal Lords want to regain their old power, Black Yang is the most ruthless. Over the course of the season, it will be revealed that he seeks order above all else (helping to differentiate him from Twin Masters) and he seeks it through subjugation. A plot point will be that he has learned a way to use his powers to control others and strip them of free will, allowing him to create a world of perfect order. This begins to disturb even the other animal lords. The personalities of the Animal Lords are planned as follows: Black Yang: The leader of the group. He wears a mask (which may be an artifact itself that boosts his power.) The mask has a high level of detail, giving him a sense of greater scale when compared with other characters. He is obsessed with creating a world of perfect order and would go so far as to strip others of free will to accomplish it. As he continues for his plan, even the other animal lords begin to fear his intentions and his power. He is an incredible magician with power to stand against at least four other animal lords at once and knows many ancient secrets. It is possible that the heroes do not realize that he is the main villain at first because they make the mistake of thing of a sheep as a follower. His signature color is black and he corresponds to the Chinese classical element of earth. She: The snake. Currently the only female planned in the group (not because of the word "she" however, which is Chinese for snake. That is purely coincidental. the second most likely in the group to be made female is Hu, the tiger, but the idea of a team of five animals with a female tiger reminds me too much of Kung Fu Panda. The third most likely would be Ji, but for comparison to the Chinese zodiac, it is easiest to call him a rooster and thus male. Also I want him to be distinguished from Hen Queen.). An eccentric poet, she often lengthens her name with many titles and composes verses on the spot. She is very long and is physically the largest of the Animal Lords. Her signature color is green and she corresponds to the classical Chinese element of water. Zhu: The pig. Like the other pigs in Hero: 108, he is large and fat, but is slightly more mobile. He also has large boar-like tusks. He is the laziest and most passive of the Animal Lords, but has a talent at creating magical artifacts and bizarre potions. A bit of a coward. Hedonistic. Has a cruel streak, but still one of the most easily cowed by Black Yang’s extreme methods, which leads him to side with Big Green. As he puts it, even he has standards. His signature color is yellow and he corresponds to the classical Chinese element of wood. Ji: The rooster. Probably Black Yang’s most loyal follower. An highly honorable warrior.Never runs from a fight, and considers those who do dishonorable. After seeing Big Green make a tactical retreat, he comes to believe that they lack honor. He has been described as the “Samurai” of the group. Unlike most roosters, an accomplished flier. His signature color is red and he corresponds to the classical Chinese element of fire. Hu: The tiger. A tough, nearly invulnerable warrior. Shrugs off attacks as though they are nothing. Unlike some of the others, who use their abilities to fight from a distance, he likes to fight up close and personal, and creates weapons with his powers. The most physically powerful. Talks the least of the animal lords, but noted for his wide grin. His signature color is white and he correspond to the classical Chinese element of metal. In the first episode, the Chaotic prisons of the animal lords break down because of the defeat of Twin Masters a few weeks or months earlier. This triggers an earthquake which is felt throughout Hidden Kingdom. Animals in the forest come to see the flashes of light that accompany the lords emerging (in one draft. An alternate draft has only Black Yang emerging, but coming back later to free his comrades later on.) First Squad soon comes to investigate the incident. When ApeTrully realizes that the Animal Lords have returned, he warns First Squad about them. The reason he distrusts them is explained below. HighRoller also comes, as he knows about the animal lords, having been told about them when he was working for Twin Masters. He wishes to make them serve him, but when he realizes they will not, he chooses to take decisive action against them, because he does not wish to serve a master again. In the course of the resulting fiasco, First Squad does battle with the animal lords, who use the opportunity of the fight to convince the animals present that Big Green distrusts and hates powerful animals. The animal lords use their powers to try to destroy East Citadel, which in their time was the seat of the human government, but are stopped by the combined power of First Squad. Meanwhile, HighRoller is captured by the animal lords, but he refuses to be compliant with their wishes. It is revealed that ApeTrully has knowledge about the Animal Lords because he is a direct descendant of one of them, Hou, a monkey king. Before the animal lords did battle with Twin Masters, Hou had discovered that Black Yang had plans to subjugate all of Hidden Kingdom, and refused to side with him. Black Yang prevented the other lords from learning this, as they would oppose him, and instead had him branded a traitor. For this reason, Hou did not take part in the battle and returned to Monkey Castle, which from then on was kept secret from the rest of Hidden Kingdom. Because of his expertise, the monkeys were able to keep a wide range of magical artifacts that were slowly lost by other animal kingdoms. Because Yang is obsessed with order, his magic reflects this, and Lin Chung discovers that his Harmonic powers are far less effective against him than they were against Twin Masters. Over the course of the season, however, he learns that the order of Black Yang is not harmony, where disparate elements strengthen each other, but a sort of monotone, where all elements are assimilated. This at last gives him an advantage once more against the Animal Lords. HighRoller is captured by the animal lords early in the season but refuses to serve them. This is designed to show character development, as he will not grovel to them as he did Twin Masters. He is even a little surprised by this himself. Bearstomp, wishing to rescue his master, leaves the castle one day to try to find him, possibly taking a squad of bears with him. Unfortunately, this leaves the Zebra brothers in charge. They fail to hold onto it, so East Citadel is taken over by an animal who used to serve HighRoller (possibly Tasmanian Devil Queen, but this is not decided yet.) In the mid-season climax, Bearstomp works with First Squad to infiltrate the fortress of the Animal Lords. They run into trouble, during which HighRoller escapes. However, Bearstomp is caught up in confusion and sent far away. HighRoller returns to East Citadel, but learns that does not wish to give it back, and since none of HighRoller's allies know that he is alive, he has no army to back him up. The zebra brothers debate helping him. The animal lord fortress is in the middle of a swamp, which formed after waterways shifted after their defeat. Episodes Reborn Part I/Reborn Part II Reborn Part I: First Squad is fighting a group of animal bandits led by Tasmanian Devil Queen. However, an unexpected rock slide allows them to get away. They return to Big Green, which is completing reconstruction, but they are told by Woo that an earthquake has shaken Hidden Kingdom, the cause of the rockslide earlier. He uses a seismographic device to tell them the epicenter to the earthquake, a place which ApeTrully recognizes. He does not tell them all of the details, but he chooses to go with them, citing that the place is both mysterious and dangerous. Meanwhile, Black Yang emerges from his tomb, and realizes that animals who live in that part of the forest are gathering. He makes spectacles for them and recruits them to his side. First Squad runs into HighRoller, who admits that he knows about the Animal Lords, addressing them by name for the first time because Twin Masters told them about him. Their presence alerts Black Yang, who distrusts humans and captures HighRoller and First Squad. Meanwhile, more animals begin arriving to see what they have heard about, including many allies of Big Green. First Squad and HighRoller work together to escape, and realize that Black Yang intends to conquer all of Hidden Kingdom. They challenge him, but the animals see what appears to be First Squad and HighRoller working together, leading them to question allegiances. Black Yang fights them all at once, animating the tomb itself into a titanic stone monstrosity that he controls. Realizing that Black Yang does not care about the safety of the gathered animals First Squad leads it away from them and defeats Black Yang, forcing him to retreat. However, he recaptures HighRoller. Later, we see Black Yang helping to free the rest of the animal lords. New First Episode Summary The scene just doesn’t work. Unless Mighty Ray disappears in his own lightning. Fighting in an icy chasm, they are up against a formidable foe. They have the upper hand until an unforeseen earthquake causes an avalanche. Mighty Ray tries to shield them with his vision, creating an intense field of blinding light. In the aftermath, he has disappeared. They wonder where he is, but speculate that he might have gone after the now fleeing enemy. Having recovered the object they were pursuing, Lin Chung orders that ____ go and return it to safety, while ____ try to find Mighty Ray. En route, _______ and ApeTrully encounter Woo the Wise, who tells them that the shaking they felt was in fact an earthquake and that he has pinpointed its epicenter. ApeTrully recognizes it. The heroes in the group want to check it out, and point out that the artifact will be safe with them. Meanwhile, the other heroes are tracking the animal army, whom they discover are working for HighRoller. Mighty Ray realizes that he is seeing the stone monkey deity, who tells him that the day is approaching, and teaches him tricks of his eyeballs that he did not know. But until that day, he cannot move from that place. Meanwhile, watching HighRoller and co is exposed by the unexpected beginning of an abnormal storm. HighRoller recognizes it as another sign of the animal lords freeing themselves. He breaks off the fight with Lin Chung, making his way toward the epicenter of the storm. Lin Chung manages to take hold of him, forcing him to talk. He admits that the animal lords are returning. With regard to the animal lords, there are actually maybe a dozen of them, and not all are main characters. Only the strongest will directly challenge first squad.